A great article in the Washington Post today about eco-kashrut — including Tuv Ha’Aretz’s Devora Kimmelman-Block, Nigel Savage and a shout out about The Jew and the Carrot!
First she had to find an organic cattle farm near Washington. Then a shochet, a person trained in kosher slaughtering, who was willing to do a freelance job. Then a kosher butcher to carve the beef into various cuts and other families from her synagogue to share it.
All told, it took Devora Kimelman-Block of Silver Spring 10 months to obtain 450 pounds of meat that is local, grass-fed, organic and strictly kosher. Which is a lot of effort — and a lot of meat — for someone who keeps a kosher vegetarian household.
Read the article
The article also suggests that the Tsedek Hekscher, under development by the Conservative movement to certify that food is not only kosher but meets criteria for worker health and safety, could be attractive to non-Jews as well as those Jews interested in keeping kosher. Or l’goyim (light to the nations), anyone?
So I got up at 5am yesterday — as has become my routine on Fridays — to bake a massive batch of challah with Julie, Freedman’s bread and cake baker extraordinaire. Challah for 100 people — the risen dough fills a bowl you could take a bath in!
Except this time — the dough didn’t rise. After three hours in the hot kitchen (proofing oven? who needs a proofing oven? the whole kitchen is like a giant proofing oven!) and no dough action, despair set in, a hasty trip to the store for more flour was made, and we started over.
But the dough was still tasty sweet egg bread dough, and I was loathe to throw it all out. So I saved some, and this morning I made cinnamon twists. Kind of a cross between breadsticks and cinnamon buns, this was a very sweet way to salvage the unrisen dough.
Here’s how: Read more »
NYPost reports on a dispute over the authenticity of the new Bowery Whole Foods’ Guss’ Pickles supplier:
July 5, 2007 — It’s a case of the big pickle versus the little gherkin. A pickle peddler says she’s soured on trendy Whole Foods, claiming the chain of
supermarkets has been buying legendary Guss’ Pickles from a Bronx rival she accuses of ripping off the famous name. “Whole Foods is selling the pickles [as if ] they are coming from the Lower East Side’s Guss’ Pickles,” said owner Patricia Fairhurst. “They never came from me. I am Guss’ Pickles.”
The briny brouhaha stems from a legal battle between Fairhurst’s 85-year-old store on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side and another business, United Pickle in The Bronx. Fairhurst insists that United Pickle stop using the Guss’ name synonymous with sours and dills. Both sides are due in Manhattan federal court July 16 to fight over the name - but Fairhurst accuses Whole Foods in the meantime of using the Guss’ Pickles brand to sell a rival’s inferior product in a new Bowery store.
A Whole Foods Market spokesman, however, insisted that United Pickle - run by the Leibowitz family - is the true purveyor of the pickle name.
I guess we’ll see on July 16th who the “real” Guss is…Wikipedia and NYTimes Select have the full scoop:
In 2006, Tim [Baker, former owner of Guss, several owners after Isidor Guss] sold his ownership of Guss’ Pickles and left a legal mess in its wake. A buyer in Woodmere, NY claims to have bought the name Guss’ Pickles from Tim, while the actual store, which moved from its historic location on Essex Street to a storefront within the Lower East Side Tenement Museum was sold to someone else. The two parties are now battling in court for the rights to the name Guss’ Pickles.
And now, the winner for the nifty-est thing ever award: New York Sun Works, The Science Barge!
It floats, it educates - it grows hydroponic vegetables, irrigated by rainwater and purified river water. From NY Sun Works’ website:
“More than half the world’s population now live in cities. Delivering food to them requires a transportation system that pollutes the air and water. Conventional farms use a lot of water, and fertilizers pollute streams and rivers. Traditional energy plants contribute to air pollution and global warming. If cities can produce some of their own food, energy, and water then this burden will be lighter. In a changing climate, food supplies will become unsecure in certain parts of the world. Urban agriculture protects people while it protects the environment.
The Science Barge is a sustainable urban farm designed by New York Sun Works, an environmental nonprofit organization. The Science Barge tours New York City’s public waterfront parks, offering sustainability education programs to wide audiences.”
Thanks to Sarah Rose for the tip. If you know of any other amazing food projects around the country (or the globe) send an email to tips@jcarrot.org.
In this month of Tammuz, we confront a great paradox. The sun is passing through its highest point in the sky. Flowers are blooming, tomatoes are just starting to burst from the vine, and berries – mmm, the berries – this is the time of greatest abundance. Dipping into cool waters at this time is one of life’s greatest joys.
Yet in our tradition, we are moving through a time of deep reflection and mourning for loss. On the 9th of Tammuz, the first exile of the Jews began as the Judean King abandoned the Temple and the Babylonians breached the outer walls of the Temple. (Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 26a-b.) Today, on the 17th of Tamuz, Jews traditionally fast from sun-up to sun-down, mourning the destruction of the Temple. This is also recognized as the day when Moses dashed the first set of Tablets from Sinai in response to our worship of the Golden calf. (Exodus 32:19.)
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In honor of Independence Day, here’s a short excerpt from a longer NY Times Op-ed, “Red State Welfare,” by Tim Egan.
“Every five years or so Congress drafts a farm bill. The last farm bill was a masterpiece of Soviet-style goals and giveaways signed by that faux-rancher who likes to show off his cowboy boots, President Bush.
This massive piece of legislation could be a blueprint for rural America. But it has become a spoils system where the congressmen-turned-lobbyists make sure that their clients get triple-figure checks for growing things that the nation already has in surplus.
This year, things are different. It’s not their farm bill anymore. It is quickly becoming a food bill, a design for the American diet, possibly the worst in the industrial world. Budget hawks, nutritionists, small farmers and big farmers who grow fruits and vegetables without subsidies, alternative energy advocates and rural renaissance types — all are ready to do battle over the new plan.
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By Jeff Yoskowitz, Adamah Fellow
Today is the 17th of Tammuz. It’s a Jewish fast day commemorating many calamities that befell the Jewish people and begins a three week period of mourning leading up to Tisha B’Av. Among other events, this day commemorates when Moses descended from Mt. Sinai with the tablets and found the Israelites worshiping the golden calf, when the priests in the First Temple Period ceased to make sacrifices due to the beginning of the siege on Jerusalem and when the Romans publicly burned the Torah and laid the groundwork for their siege on Jerusalem in 70 CE.
I spent this holy fast day in the hot sun working on the tomatoes. I’ve been made “the tomato guy” here at Adamah and have enjoyed my work suckering and stringing the many different varieties of tomatoes. “Suckering” is cutting off new growth points which direct energy away from the main stem. By removing them, the main stem retains most of the plant’s energy and its fruits grow much bigger. It also feels nice to give the plant a haircut. Stringing the tomatoes helps them to grow tall and strong.
Since the harvest is just beginning, for the past few days I’ve ended my work with a little treat from one of the few ripe tomatoes — usually a yellow tomato. Today was a bit different than usual, though…
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In case you had any doubts, a new study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition has shown that crops have steadily been declining in nutritional value over the past 50 years. This is what happens when farmers grow for yield rather than for health.
And over at the Kosher Blog, Jabbett posted a scathing review of Manischewitz’ new pareve frosting, calling the company’s bluff for using partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil in so many products.
Last summer I had a conversation with Tuv Ha’Aretz farmer, Chris Kaplan Walbrecht (of the Garden of Eve Farm) that shocked the jaded pants off of me. It was the Tuv Ha’Aretz pick up before the 4th of July - and plump, juicy sweet corn slathered in butter was on everyone’s mind. Chris told me how difficult it was to grow corn organically, and to have it ready to harvest by July 4th. But - sweet corn is so firmly rooted in American’s minds as a July 4th staple, that he, along with many other farmers, did their best to make it happen.
Some farmers, he said, fight that corn out of the ground at all costs. Chris described the conventional farms he drives past on long Island that produce vast fields of corn. He told me how they spray a thick layer of pesticides on the baby corn plants and then literally cover the field in plastic (imagine covering a bowl in Saran Wrap) which keeps the bugs out and allows the pesticides to bake in. When the corn is big enough, the chemical-soaked plastic is removed and - no surprise - thrown away into landfills. The corn is large, ripe, and ready for the grill. But at what cost to the earth and our bodies? I knew that industrial, conventional farming was not earth-friendly, but this just absolutely stunned me. How could I possibly celebrate our country’s independence while eating corn that ruined its fertile land?
The Garden of Eve uses organic methods and timing to coax - not force - their corn to grow tall and yellow by Independence Day. I applaud them in their efforts but even so - this 4th of July, as part of my patriotic duty, I vow to eat beautiful, locally grown yellow summer squash instead of corn.
Abby with one of our goat kids
Every two weeks we have a different chore to do. This rotation, I’m milking goats.
We milk & feed our goats before breakfast –- it’s a mitzvah to take care of your animals before yourself in the morning. And it’s an odd kind of pressure, to wake up, especially on the weekend when I *could* sleep in if I wanted, knowing that there are two beautiful she-goats with full udders, who will be more and more uncomfortable every time I press snooze. We are grateful to our animals, and we appreciate eating their eggs and drinking their milk, and I think we appreciate it more because of the work involved in getting it.
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